Mongolis a crowd-pleasing historical epic from Kazakhstan, writes Donald Clarke
AFTER an early summer dominated by the contrasting frivolities of Iron Manand Indiana Jones, the serious cinema fan may find his brain fizzing at the prospect of an ascetic, highbrow period drama from the eastern reaches of Kazakhstan.
Mongolis not that film. This stirring gallop through the early life of Genghis Khan - recipient of an Oscar nomination for best foreign language film - provides unabashed mainstream entertainment from start to finish. Recalling noisier bits of Lawrence of Arabia, House of Flying Daggersand 300, the film makes use of swelling major chords, endless shots of beautiful Asian wastelands and actors with teeth that would garner approval on Rodeo Drive.
None of which is meant as complaint. Sergei Bodrov's unremittingly breathless film (which is a co-production between Kazakhstan, Mongolia, Russia and Germany) makes a virtue of its bold approach to tell a complex story in a clear, simple fashion.
The picture begins with the teenage Mongol (Tadanobu Asano), son of a tribal chieftain, being taken on a journey to meet his future bride. Along the way he encounters an attractive girl from a humble background and, to the dismay of his father, who is expecting a handsome dowry from a powerful ally, he commits to her rather than the original choice.
The story is related as a way of asserting the hero's originality of approach and his determination to achieve seemingly impossible goals. Those character traits are soon tested when an unscrupulous rival overthrows his family and he is cast into exile. Being Genghis Khan (though not yet so named), he recovers to muster an army, regain his authority and, ultimately, conquer half the known world.
Mongol, part of a proposed trilogy, ends some decades before that ultimate triumph, but the film-makers unearth more than enough incident to pack 120 clamorous minutes. Purists may find the film's Mongols a tad more suburban in their domestic habits than records suggest, but Bodrov, a highly experienced Russian director, follows the example of the American western and invents new myths to set beside the old.
We could have done without the awful rock song - a discarded Finnish Eurovision entry? - that closes the film, but Mongolremains the best Kazakh film we have seen this year. It may even be better than that suggests.
